Measuring Family Centred Care: Working with Children and Their Parents in a Tertiary Hospital

Rationale and aim: Family-centred care (FCC) is widely used in paediatrics, though no rigorous evidence for it exists. A growing body of qualitative research raises concerns about FCC, and health professionals’ attitudes to it. We measured attitudes to working with children and working with parents...

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Main Authors: Shields, Linda, Mamun, A., Pereira, S., O'Nions, P., Chaney, G.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Buckingham Press 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/46781
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author Shields, Linda
Mamun, A.
Pereira, S.
O'Nions, P.
Chaney, G.
author_facet Shields, Linda
Mamun, A.
Pereira, S.
O'Nions, P.
Chaney, G.
author_sort Shields, Linda
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Rationale and aim: Family-centred care (FCC) is widely used in paediatrics, though no rigorous evidence for it exists. A growing body of qualitative research raises concerns about FCC, and health professionals’ attitudes to it. We measured attitudes to working with children and working with parents of hospitalised children held by nurses, doctors, allied health and ancillary staff at an Australian children’s hospital, using a validated questionnaire with two scores, one for working with children, one for working with parents, and demographic characteristics, and compared responses. Method: we recruited a randomized sample, and compared means of working with children and working with parents scores, using a Wilcoxon signed rank test p<0.0001. Mean differences by categories of demographics were estimated using ANOVA and median test compared the median scores.Results: respondents gave significantly more positive scores for working with children than parents. These were influenced by level of education, whether respondents were parents themselves, if they held senior positions, had worked with children for a long time, and held a paediatric qualification. Conclusions: paediatric health professionals view working with children in a more positive light than working with parents. However, if FCC was being implemented effectively, given its empahsis on the whole family as the unit of care, there would be no difference between working with children or their parents. This quantiative study supports the increasing body of qualitative research which highlights problems with this model. In addition, this study provides a way to measure FCC.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-467812017-01-30T15:29:15Z Measuring Family Centred Care: Working with Children and Their Parents in a Tertiary Hospital Shields, Linda Mamun, A. Pereira, S. O'Nions, P. Chaney, G. parents tertiary hospital family-centered care Children Rationale and aim: Family-centred care (FCC) is widely used in paediatrics, though no rigorous evidence for it exists. A growing body of qualitative research raises concerns about FCC, and health professionals’ attitudes to it. We measured attitudes to working with children and working with parents of hospitalised children held by nurses, doctors, allied health and ancillary staff at an Australian children’s hospital, using a validated questionnaire with two scores, one for working with children, one for working with parents, and demographic characteristics, and compared responses. Method: we recruited a randomized sample, and compared means of working with children and working with parents scores, using a Wilcoxon signed rank test p<0.0001. Mean differences by categories of demographics were estimated using ANOVA and median test compared the median scores.Results: respondents gave significantly more positive scores for working with children than parents. These were influenced by level of education, whether respondents were parents themselves, if they held senior positions, had worked with children for a long time, and held a paediatric qualification. Conclusions: paediatric health professionals view working with children in a more positive light than working with parents. However, if FCC was being implemented effectively, given its empahsis on the whole family as the unit of care, there would be no difference between working with children or their parents. This quantiative study supports the increasing body of qualitative research which highlights problems with this model. In addition, this study provides a way to measure FCC. 2011 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/46781 Buckingham Press fulltext
spellingShingle parents
tertiary hospital
family-centered care
Children
Shields, Linda
Mamun, A.
Pereira, S.
O'Nions, P.
Chaney, G.
Measuring Family Centred Care: Working with Children and Their Parents in a Tertiary Hospital
title Measuring Family Centred Care: Working with Children and Their Parents in a Tertiary Hospital
title_full Measuring Family Centred Care: Working with Children and Their Parents in a Tertiary Hospital
title_fullStr Measuring Family Centred Care: Working with Children and Their Parents in a Tertiary Hospital
title_full_unstemmed Measuring Family Centred Care: Working with Children and Their Parents in a Tertiary Hospital
title_short Measuring Family Centred Care: Working with Children and Their Parents in a Tertiary Hospital
title_sort measuring family centred care: working with children and their parents in a tertiary hospital
topic parents
tertiary hospital
family-centered care
Children
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/46781